Sermon Tone Analysis
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Psalm 2
Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the actions and plans of ungodly world leaders?
Do you ever feel afraid, frustrated, or pressured by the policies they implement, especially those which undermine biblical, godly values?
If so, then this psalm is for you.
Psalms 1-2 introduce to the entire collection of Psalms.
They contrast people who follow God with those who don't.
Psa 1 portrays following God as following his instruction; Psa 2 as following his king.
The first encourages commitment to God’s guidance while the second encourages submission to his reign.
These poems share some fascinating details together as a pair of psalms:
Psa 1 says that a godly person murmurs to himself about God’s Word, but Psa 2 says that ungodly people murmur to each other against God.
(Meditate in Psa 1:2 and plot in Psa 2:1 are the same word.)
This contrast reveals that godly people focus on doing what God says, but ungodly people focus on undoing what God says.
Psa 1 begins with a promise of blessing to those who follow God, and Psa 2 ends with a promise of God’s blessing to those who trust in him.
Psa 1 says that the way of the way of the ungodly will be lost (or destroyed, Psa 1:6) and Psa 2 says that the ungodly will be lost (or be destroyed) in the way (Psa 2:12).
From an artistic standpoint, these psalms paint contrasting pictures for our imagination to savor.
The first paints a rustic outdoor scene of trees, rivers, and a farmyard at harvest.
The second paints a royal indoor scene of dignitaries, courtiers, and a throne room – even heaven.
Yet both send a similar message, that those who follow God will be blessed and those who refuse to follow God will ruined.
This psalm appears in four distinct parts.
Part 1 – How ungodly people respond to God’s king (Psa 2:1-3)
Part 2 – How God responds to their plans (Psa 2:4-6)
Part 3 – What God promised to his king (Psa 2:7-9)
Part 4 – How ungodly people should respond to God’s king (Psa 2:10-12)
Let’s take a closer look at each of these parts to discover how this psalm should influence our lives today.
Ungodly people despise God’s authority.
(Psa 2:1-3)
Why are the nations restless,
and the peoples muttering delusions?
Many psalms give key facts at the beginning, like who wrote the psalm, why they wrote it, and how to perform it from a musical standpoint.
This psalm gives us no such information.
It just begins.
That’s why we can’t say wrote it or why it was written.
Still, we can see the general scenario it describes.
World leaders were forming an alliance to overthrow the king that God had placed in Jerusalem.
Nations and peoples refer to the ethnic groups and kingdoms who surrounded the nation Israel and frequently fought against her.
Restless describes a state of agitation, like waves on a stormy sea, and delusions describes wishful thinking and useless strategies.
This is a rhetorical question.
The person who wrote this poem was amazed that people actually thought they could overthrow God’s authority and plans.
Kings of the earth are taking a stand,
and rulers are consolidating together –
against Yahweh and against his anointed one.
Here the poem adjusts its lens from a wide view of large people groups to a focused, close-up view of their political leaders.
It portrays their leaders as doing the opposite of their intended purpose.
Though God intends for political leaders to carry out his plans for the world, these leaders try to achieve their godless plans instead.
Take a stand describes a pushing back against God much like the defensive linemen on a football team push back against plays when the opposing team runs an offensive scheme.
Consolidating together describes an alliance for the purpose of forming a more effective military campaign.
These nations believed that by pulling together they would be able to overthrow God’s authority and govern independently of him.
The poem inserts a third line here to show the close connection between God (Yahweh) and the king he had chosen to govern Israel.
It is important to read this as a reference to the entire Davidic dynasty, to King David whom God had anointed as king over Israel and to the subsequent kings who descend from him.
So “the king” or “the anointed” refers to not to one king in particular but to the long line of kings in Jerusalem from David forward.
“Let us rip off their ropes!
Let us throw away their cords!”
These statements do not mean these people and rulers were actually tied up or imprisoned but that they viewed being ruled by God’s king and kingdom as being imprisoned and restrictive.
By coming together, they hoped to govern autonomously – free from God’s authority over them.
What does God think about this?
God disregards people who reject his authority.
(Psa 2:4-6)
He who sits in the heavens laughs –
the Lord ridicules them.
This line introduces the second section of this psalm.
In contrast to the world leaders who plant themselves against God, we see God himself even more resolute than they are.
They stand but he sits.
This word means that God sits on this throne unphased.
Notice another contrast between God and ungodly rulers.
They are “of the earth” but he is “in the heavens,” which further underscores his superior and sovereign position.
They each rule a small portion of Earth while he rules over everything on the earth and beyond.
In yet another contrast, while ungodly people mutter restless, senseless plans, God laughs and jeers, not because they entertain him but because they amaze him.
“Hah!
Is this for real?
Do these people actually think they can overthrow me?”
God’s amazement resembles what the giant, Goliath (from one of Israel’s nearby enemy nations), said when young David came to fight him with a slingshot.
“Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?”
Only here, the giant is God and he laughs not at a single world ruler but a full alliance of rulers and the nations of the world.
Here the poem uses the word for lord or master to describe God rather than using his personal name, Yahweh.
This title affirms God as the King over kings and Lord over lords.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and in his burning anger he will terrify them:
Here the poem shifts from what God says to himself to what he says to ungodly people.
He will speak to them in a way that terrifies them.
What will make his words so terrifying is that he will speak them with burning, hot anger.
“I myself have installed my king
on Zion my holy mountain!”
This is what God will say in his wrath.
“I myself” emphasizes his self-sufficiency.
When God acts against the powerful nations of the world and their people, he doesn’t need to form an alliance.
He acts from his own sovereign ability and right to do so.
Despite all the plans that the kings and nations of the world can muster, God will install his king in Jerusalem just as he promised.
This moment is going to occur and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it.
No alliance can overthrow his king and authority.
God guarantees worldwide domination for his king.
(Psa 2:7-9)
I will declare the decree,
[which] Yahweh spoke to me,
This line introduces the third section of this poem.
In the first section, the writer expressed amazement that people and rulers resist God’s authority over them.
In the second section, he showed that God expressed similar amazement.
Now the writer shares something that God promised to him.
This section of the poem repeats things God said to King David.
It recalls promises God gave to King David, but not only to him.
These words reflect a perpetual promise to all David’s descendants who would reign after him and and they read like something to be read at a coronation ceremony.
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